Historically, wireless LAN management systems have been isolated from their wired counterparts, relying upon
loose integration techniques like trap forwarding and console cut-through. Wireless-to-wired event correlation
and trouble resolution are often labor-intensive, politically sensitive processes, plagued by inefficiencies and
finger-pointing.

But as WLANs become an essential part of enterprise networks, this approach no longer suffices. "If a problem
interferes with one of our mission-critical applications, our users don't care whether the cause is the device's
firmware, the wireless AP's signal or a down switch – they just want it fixed," said Greg Catalano, Senior
Network Engineer at Boise, Inc.

To bring wired and wireless management together under one unified umbrella, Aruba Networks today announced a
major expansion to AirWave 7, a heretofore heterogeneous WLAN management system. "We wanted to stop the
bickering that so many of our customers say they experience," said Bryan Wargo, General Manager of Aruba's
AirWave division.

"Our customers told us they really needed a unified view of switches, controllers, APs, and mobile devices,
along with one push configuration for changes that span all of those devices. So we created AirWave 7 to make
the world a better place [for network administrators and users] by offering a central source of consolidated
information."

Blurring the Boundaries

Traditional (wired) LAN management systems are not designed with mobility in mind. "They are too port-centric
and they lack end to end visibility," said Wargo. "Customers complain they have 75 different trouble-shooting
tools that are all information silos."

AirWave 7 will simplify trouble resolution in integrated wired/wireless networks by providing broader
visibility and faster root cause analysis, no matter which kind of device is at fault. In addition to managing
APs and controllers from all major WLAN manufacturers, the AirWave Management Platform (AMP) will now also
manage edge Ethernet switches from Cisco and HP. AMP reaches those switches via SNMP; the supported device list
will be expanded over time, based on customer needs.

When AirWave 7 ships in March 2010, all customers with support contracts will receive these new AMP features
at no additional cost. However, don't look for Aruba to sell AirWave as a pure-play wired network management system (NMS). "Our goal is to
support switch management in context with interconnected wireless devices," said Wargo. "Our wired management is
going to play more of a supporting role in networks that have both technologies."

Expanding the Edge

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Another common administrator complaint, said Wargo, is visibility and control that end at the edge switch or
AP. "Think about retail stores that need to manage all the way down to the device level," said Wargo. "When they
make configuration changes to their WLAN, they want to make corresponding changes to Windows-based handheld
computers."

Windows devices have the option of running an AirWave MDM agent to enable more
comprehensive device management, remote control, and remote reboot.

But AirWave MDM's agentless interface device list is short in the first release: Honeywell Dolphin ruggedized
mobile computers and Datamax-O'Neil wired and wireless printers. Wargo said that AirWave plans to expand that
list incrementally over time, but emphasized that many devices of interest to customers can already be managed
using the lightweight AirWave MDM Windows (32/64/Mobile) agent. AirWave MDM will be an optional,
separately-priced add-on module for AMP.

Divvying Management Access

"If we were going to expand the scope of AirWave, we had to find-tune user interface access to deliver
management views and features unique to each group," said Wargo. To that end, AirWave 7 adds customizable
dashboards, making it possible for enterprises to give administrators with different roles to be given
appropriately-limited visibility and commands.

"A large IT organization can have one platform but yet provide customized access, specific to job function,"
said Wargo. Help desk staff can be given tools for wired, wireless, and/or mobile device monitoring and
visualization, depending upon their area of responsibility. Engineering can be given full centralized control
over the entire network, while the Security Audit group might be given the ability to view configurations and
generate reports.

Finally, humans will no longer be the only entities to consume AirWave 7's management information. This
release includes a new XML API that enables software integration between AirWave 7 and other IT operations
systems. For example, AirWave customer University of Cincinnati reportedly built an E911 application, using
location data exported from AirWave via the new XMLAPI.

Bottom Line

With this expansion, AirWave 7 becomes a more comprehensive network management system, with broader reach and
greater flexibility. Of course, the devil will be in the details – this new release is still in beta test.
However, AirWave 7 appears to be moving in a badly-needed direction.

"As WLAN deployments attain levels of reliability and control that rival wired networks, IDC expects a
broader set of applications to be driven to wireless networks," said Abner Germanow, IDC's Director of
Enterprise Communications Infrastructure. "Wireless performance then becomes mission-critical, and IT
organizations need to assume control over all of the components that drive service quality, including wired
infrastructure and client devices."

Lisa Phifer owns Core Competence, a consulting firm focused on business use of emerging network and
security technologies. A 28-year industry veteran, Lisa enjoys helping companies large and small to assess,
mitigate, and prevent Internet security threats through sound policies, effective technologies, best practices,
and user education.

Originally published on .

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